Dubai-based startup Stake is offering retail investors from across the globe the opportunity to buy fractions of rental property in UAE’s marquee city and earn regular income. The startup, founded in 2020, claims that because of Dubai’s real estate rules it has managed to attract investing users on the platform from more than 80 countries in the world.

The company, founded by Manar Mahmassani, Rami Tabbara and Ricardo Brizido in 2020, has raised $8 million in a pre-Series A round from investors like BY Ventures, MEVP and Vivium Holdings to expand its portfolio and launch in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The company first raised a $4 million seed round last year.

“This round is a testament to what we are building at Stake and our mission to bring access and liquidity to the oldest, largest, and most sought-after asset class in the world. The proceeds will allow us to expand into Saudi Arabia and Egypt, continue attracting the best talent to the team, and cement Stake’s position as the category leader in the MENA region,” Mahmassani said in a written statement.

Tabbara told TechCrunch over a call that after being in the real estate business for more than 15 years, he realized a lot of people want to invest in the MENA region but can’t afford to put in large chunks of money without paying huge commissions to brokers and developers. So he wanted to accelerate the process of investing in real estate with Stake.

The firm says it lists premium properties on its platform that are already on rent. To acquire a property, Stake looks at factors like location, build quality, view and if it has tenants. Tabbara said if the property is not rented, the company uses its data to list properties that could be rented out quickly. Stake has paid over AED 1 million ($272,249) in rental income to investors, which is credited every month.

Stake currently manages more than 44 properties with a combined value of AED 56 million ($17.9 million). The company claims that it has achieved an average 17% monthly growth rate in both investors and assets under management (AUM).

“Our platform currently boasts 42,000 registered users and more than 2,100 active investors on the platform. While we have users from many countries on the site, folks from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the U.K. and India are our top five investor bases,” Tabbara said.

Users can quickly register with the platform and invest from as low as AED 500 ($136). Because of Dubai’s investment rules individual investors can only invest up to AED 183,500 ($50,000) per year. The proptech company also limits maximum ownership by a single investor in a property to 33% to evenly spread out gains.

The firm doesn’t rely on financing to acquire homes. All the money to purchase a property comes from the investors. While Dubai’s property rule allows for partial deeds, there’s a cap of four investors, so Stake creates a special purpose vehicle for each property to facilitate deed registration. All properties usually have an investment term of five periods, but a house’s value goes up 30% in the market, and the investors can vote to sell it.

Stake’s business model relies on various fees. When investors purchase a property, the company charges them 1.5% with an additional 0.5% charged annually for maintenance. Plus, there are 0.2% Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money laundering fees up front and 0.1% annually from the second year of the term. The company also charges investors 2.5% as an exit fee when they sell their stake. What’s more, if the property is sold at a higher rate than its acquisition, Stake takes a 15% cut from the profit. The company is not profitable yet but has achieved 470% year-on-year growth in terms of revenue.

In the next 12 months, apart from launching its platform in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the company also wants to build a second-day trading platform, where investors can sell their stake in a property to other investors. Stake is focusing on launching a way to let people invest in vacation properties that go on platforms like Airbnb — something that platforms like Komoco and Here are trying in the U.S.

In the local market, Stake’s closest competitor is SmartCrowd, which raised a $3 million bridge round in June. Tabbara claims that his company has already surpassed SmartCrowd when it comes to AUM.

“We are banking on our team, technology and experience in dealing with different properties to become the most prominent real estate investment platform in the Middlel East and North Africa (MENA) region,” he said.

Source: Techcrunch

Jordan-based fintech liwwa has closed an $18.5 million pre-Series B round of equity and debt. The $4.5 million in equity investment was led by existing investors, DASH Ventures, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, Edgo, and Bank al Etihad, in addition to German Development Finance Institution DEG approving an investment of $790,000.

The round also included debt contributions from a network of local banks and international development finance institutions; Bank al Etihad increased its debt financing agreement by $5 million, while an additional $8.5 million debt facility was raised from the Capital Bank of Jordan under the NASIRA agreement, Jordan Kuwait Bank and Triodos Bank extended a $1.1 million and a $2.2 million finance facility respectively, PROPARCO approved a €1 facility and Triple Jump approved a $500,000 loan.

Founded in 2015, liwwa employs technology across its operations to provide tailored financial solutions. It also owns and operates the liwwa Investment Platform, a peer-to-peer platform that enables retail investors to finance liwwa loans and earn returns.

liwwa will utilise the funds for its growth and expansion plans.

Press release:

Jordan-based Fintech liwwa closed an $18.5 million pre-Series B round of equity and debt. Founded in 2015, liwwa employs technology across its operations to provide tailored financial solutions. It also owns and operates the liwwa Investment Platform, a peer-to-peer platform that enables retail investors to finance liwwa loans and earn returns.

The round included $4.5 million in equity investment led by existing investors, DASH Ventures, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, Edgo, and Bank al Etihad, in addition to German Development Finance Institution DEG approving an investment of $0.79 million.

The round also included debt contributions from a network of local banks and international development finance institutions; Bank al Etihad increased its debt financing agreement by $5 million, whereas an additional $8.5 million debt facility was raised from the Capital Bank of Jordan under the NASIRA agreement, Jordan Kuwait Bank and Triodos Bank extended a $1.1 million and a $2.2 million finance facility respectively, PROPARCO approved a €1 facility and Triple Jump approved a $500,000 loan.

liwwa will be utilizing the funds for its growth and expansion plans. liwwa’s CEO, Dennis Ardis, shared his thought on the funding round, “With this funding round, we have yet taken another major step towards accomplishing our goals.

We will continue to grow as the market grows by bringing in innovative Fintech solutions and cash flow-based lending."

Source: Wamda

Saudi Arabia-based digital freight network TruKKer, has raised $100 million in a pre-IPO round, led by Bahraini investment firm Investcorp who alone invested $51 million.

This investment is part of the recently launched Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, targeting equity growth capital investments across a range of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets within three years.

Founded in 2016 by Pradeep Mallavarapu and Gaurav Biswas, TruKKer currently serves over 700 enterprises and boasts a fleet of more than 40,000 trucks.

Last February, TruKKer raised $96 million in a mix of equity and debt for its Series B financing, led by ADQ and STV, with participation from Mubadala and other investors.

Press release:

Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, today announced that Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP led the Pre-IPO round in privately-held TruKKer Holding Limited, MENA’s largest digital freight network with a leading position across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and neighbouring countries. Investcorp led the initial close of this round with a $51 million investment alongside new and existing investors.

Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp commented: “Saudi Arabia is increasingly rich in highly investable companies, from fast-growth technology businesses like TruKKer to long-established family businesses that have grown consistently and are now looking for capital to implement more ambitious expansion plans. We are seeing a lot of interest in pre-IPO rounds as scale-ups secure greater market share and more Saudi businesses prove themselves successful on a national and regional basis.

TruKKer is just one example of the kind of company that we believe will prove attractive to institutional investors as the Saudi ecosystem matures, and our Pre-IPO fund will focus on exactly these kinds of high-growth businesses.”

“We are excited to add TruKKer to our portfolio and are keen to work with the founders of this regional champion to explore a possible market listing, as a continuation of our strategy and in line with our track record,” said Walid Majdalani, Head of Private Equity MENA and Southeast Asia at Investcorp.

“Thanks to its proprietary technology, TruKKer is ideally positioned to continue its strong growth while reducing carbon emissions across its markets. We look forward to our partnership with TruKKer and contributing our strategic and capital markets resources as well as our local and global insights to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth.”

This investment is part of the recently launched Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, targeting equity growth capital investments across a range of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets within 3 years. The fund provides investors with an opportunity to gain exposure to growing and market-leading businesses in strategic, high growth and underserved sub-sectors such as business services, transport and logistics, healthcare and consumer.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are key markets for TruKKer and represent a significant portion of the company’s revenues. The United Arab Emirates market has witnessed strong growth over the years in large part due to the development of UAE – KSA cross-border lanes with over 30,000 annual shipments transported by TruKKer, a key value proposition as the company continues to focus on scaling its network and looking to gain market share.

“TruKKer is at a key inflection point towards scaling its network and market share. Today, the company continues to grow exponentially serving over 700 B2B enterprise clients and is on track to cross $200 million in revenues in 2022. The TruKKer team is proud to be delivering on its vision of making a positive contribution to the community by having close to 10,000 drivers generating more than 70% of their monthly income on the TruKKer platform.

Our technology also enables us to optimize truckloads to reduce empty miles and idle time thereby helping us achieve our sustainability objectives.” commented Gaurav Biswas, Founder & CEO of TruKKer.

“We welcome Investcorp and are excited to partner with them through the next growth chapter of the company. Together with our partners, we look forward to continuing to bolster the company and create significant shareholder returns with a focus on healthy unit economics” adds Gaurav.

In 2008, Investcorp established a dedicated presence in Saudi Arabia, and TruKKer marks Investcorp’s eighth investment in the country, with multiple successful public listings on the Saudi Stock Exchange, including BinDawood Holdings, Theeb Rent A Car, Leejam Sports Company and L’Azurde.

source: Wamda

Egypt-based el-dokan, a company that specialises in enterprise e-commerce solutions, has raised a $550,000 pre-Seed round led by a group of local and regional investors including EFG EV and Flat6Labs, 500 Global and Hala Ventures.

Founded in 2020 by Ahmed Maher, Mohammed Shirt and Sherif Alaa, el-dokan offers e-commerce technology to corporate clients to set up their web storefronts. It primarily caters to long-tail businesses, software houses as well as startups.

The company said it helped its clients achieve $45 million in GMV sales.

Press release

el-dokan, the first-of-its-kind company to offer enterprise e-commerce technology in MENA, has announced that it successfully secured a $550,000 pre-Seed round, led by a cluster of local and regional investors including EFG EV and Flat6Labs, 500 Global and Hala Ventures.

E-commerce is now an integral part of every retailer’s business strategy, and technology builders and platforms are scrambling to provide retailers with the best technology to help them scale up and optimize their operations.

Unlike companies like Shopify and other local shop builders in the region whose focus is to address the needs of smaller retailers, in its latest turn, el-dokan provides e-commerce APIs for large- and medium-sized retailers as well as startups, enabling them to build highly customized and personalized e-commerce stores.

Launched in late 2020 in Egypt, el-dokan primarily targets large retailers and chain stores seeking to expand their e-commerce market share, increase sales and operation automation.

Utilizing "headless e-commerce technology, el-dokan offers the optimal technology infrastructure that allows tech teams to develop highly customizable e-commerce with maximum flexibility to help businesses respond faster to changing business needs and keep up with the rapid changes in e-commerce.

Besides retailers, it also targets software companies and developers that work directly with enterprises looking to build their e-commerce stores in fast and cost-efficient manner, with 300+ available API endpoints.

Commenting on the announcement, Ahmed Maher, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of el-dokan, said that the key reason behind the company's ability to earn the trust of investors and close its pre-Seed round is the fact that el-dokan is among the very select few companies that focus on building advanced software using cutting-edge technologies such as headless, composable e-commerce architecture.

"The majority of retailers have repeatedly shown the willingness to either replace the traditional e-commerce methods with more advanced and flexible technology. The technology pioneered by el-dokan 'changes the equation' by helping retailers drive sales growth while simultaneously bringing down maintenance costs, making it possible for our retailers to quickly and easily develop APIs connections with our partners to ensure the highest levels of operational efficiency. Our technology can easily integrate with any third-party providers like payments, shipping, point of sale (POS) and (ERP) systems," commented Mohamed Yousry, chief technology officer (CTO) and co-founder of el-dokan.

“After seeing the great impact el-dokan has had on enterprise businesses in MENA, and the profound growth we’ve experienced over a short period of time, we’re excited about the fact that our clients managed to achieve $45 million GMV after migrating from other global well-known software solutions that don’t meet the present-day challenges to ours. We are now serving a global roster of clients such as Procter & Gamble (P&G), Misr Pharmacies, Mobily, Zahran stores and Apple Premium seller Switch Plus, along with grocery delivery app Appetito, among others.

And this is a testament to the ability of regionally-based tech startups to develop leading-edge technologies trusted by large, international brands and compete with global counterparts," Yousry explained.

For his part, Walid Hassouna, CEO of valU, Egypt's leading buy now pay later (BNPL) platform expressed his excitement over the company's successful completion of its initial funding round which counts EFG EV among its earliest backers.

"We are looking forward to exciting times ahead with el-dokan and its all-star team who are able to carve out a niche for themselves in the rapidly-evolving e-commerce market," said Hassouna.

Source: Wamda

Venture capital investments in Bahrain increased by 167% last year compared to the previous year.

MANAMA: Bahrain is among the top countries in attracting venture capital worth $52 million last year, an economic report revealed.

Venture capital investments in Bahrain increased by 167 per cent last year compared to the previous year, as startup funding in the Middle East rose by 138pc recording $2.5 billion.

A report issued by Magnitt, a company specialising in publishing data on startups and project investments across emerging markets, said the UAE ranked first in attracting venture capital worth $1.1bn, recording a growth of 93pc, followed by Saudi Arabia with $548m, recording a growth rate of 270pc, then Egypt with a value of $502m, an increase of 176pc.

In recent years, venture capital has played a significant role in improving economic, social and scientific life in many countries. GCC states have adopted venture capital investment as part of their strategy to diversify their economy and move away from dependence on crude oil revenues.

Venture capital investment is a form of financing that provides funds to early-stage startups with high growth potential, in exchange for property rights or equity.

source: Zawya

نجحت شركة "إيفيردوم (Everdome)"، التي تعمل في مجال العالم الافتراضي (الميتافيرس) ومقرها الرئيسي في الإمارات، بالحصول على التزام بتمويلها من شركة "جي إي أم ديتجال ليمتيد"، وهي شركة استثمار في الأصول الرقمية يقع مقرها الرئيسي في جزر البهاما، بقيمة 10 مليون دولار.

نجاحات إيفيردوم تدفع بالاتفاق

يأتي الإعلان عن اتفاقية التمويل في الوقت الذي تحقق فيه "إيفيردوم" نجاحات واسعة، إذ استطاعت الشركة منذ يونيو/حزيران الفات من بيع ما يقرب من 11،700 قطعة أرض، أو ما يعادل 97% من إجمالي مساحة "الميتافيرس" الخاص بالشركة، بمزاد علني استغرق نحو ثمانية أسابيع، حيث بلغت قيمة الأراضي المباعة نحو 18.6 مليون دولار أمريكي أو ما يعادل مليار و531 $DOME، وهي العملة الرقيمة الخاصة بالشركة، أي أن متوسط سعر قطعة الأرض في عالم "إيفيردوم" الافتراضي بلغ نحو 1590 دولار أمريكي.

إيفيردوم المتحكمة التمويل

ستتولى شركة "إيفيردوم (Everdome)" التحكم بتوقيت وعدد عمليات الاقتراض بموجب اتفاقية القرض الرئيسة، ولا يوجد حد أدنى من الالتزام بالقرض. واستناداً إلى تقديرها الخاص، تتمتع "إيفيردوم (Everdome)"، بالقدرة على بيع ما يصل إلى 200 في المائة من متوسط الحجم اليومي القابل للبيع من الرموز عبر مجموعة متنوعة من البورصات إلى شركة "جي إي إم ديجيتال".

استدامة أعمال إيفيردوم المستقبلية

وعن المكاسب المتوقعة من التمويل، علق روب جرين، الرئيس التنفيذي ومؤسس شركة "إيفيردوم (Everdome)"، بالقول "سيتم استخدام الاستثمار الذي التزمت به "جي إي إم" لتعزيز عروض "إيفيردوم (Everdome)" وضمان استدامة الأعمال في المستقبل..نحن سعداء للغاية لإبرام هذه الشراكة مع "جي إي إم" الحصول على هذا الاستثمار التاريخي معها، ما يؤكد أننا نتقدم على المسار الصحيح، في الوقت الذي نسعى فيه إلى تخطي الحدود الجديدة في عالم "الميتافيرس (Metaverse)" الافتراضي. تعد هذه المرحلة بمثابة الوقت المثالي لكي نعمل على تسريع الجهود من أجل تطوير منتجاتنا. وهذا بالضبط ما سيساعدنا التزام "جي إي إم" بالاستثمار على القيام به. لقد بلغت "إيفيردوم (Everdome)" محطة مثيرة للغاية في مسيرتها، وبالتعاون مع "جي إي إم"، سنقوم بالخطوة التالية من أجل نقل منظومة "الميتافيرس Metaverse)" الافتراضية خاصتنا إلى المستوى التالي".

ومن المتوقع هذا الاتفاقية، "إيفيردوم (Everdome)" على التركيز في تنمية فريق عملها وتوسيع تكنولوجيا "الميتافيرس"، إلى جانب المساهمة في تحسين قدرتها على تخصص الأموال لتعزيز الجهود التسويقية، وتمكين الشراكات والاستثمارات التي من شأنها أن تدعم النمو المستدام لشركة "إيفيردوم (Everdome)".

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Start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa succeeded in gaining about $324 M in June with 66 deals. The value of start-up deals grew by more than 84%, and by 57% in terms of the number of deals, compared to last month.

In June, start-up deals were affected by a number of major funding deals that set venture capital trends in terms of geographical and sectoral distribution. The top five financing deals accounted for about 91% of total volume of start-ups financing in June.

The figure below shows the size of the five largest funding deals, their geographical status and the sector in which they are active

The previous chart shows that UAE startups own the lion's share of the largest financing deals in June, with the largest 4 financing deals for startups belonging to Emirati startups, while in terms of sectors, the fintech technology sector accounts for three deals. Below we review a summary of the companies that collected the five largest financing deals in the month of June.

First: Harvest

Harvest's (UAE) deal was the largest financing deal in June, after it secured a total funding volume of $180.5 M through a funding round involving a number of international and local investors, including Metric Capital Partners, IMM Investment Corp and Olayan Group. Harvest is active in agricultural technology that uses hydroponics technology to grow fruit and vegetables in harsh desert climates. Harvest is among the most highly funded start-ups with a total of more than $387 M raised by Harvest up to its last funding round. According to Harvest's press release, the company will exploit the new financing to invest in research and development, to expand its business in the GCC countries, and to break into new markets in Asia. 

Second: Huspy

Huspy (UAE) is one of the leading start-ups in real estate financing and home purchase. In its (A) Series funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and with the participation of a number of other companies and financing funds, Huspy received approximately $37 M. The company facilitates home purchases and financing operations. According to Huspy's founders, the company will use new funding to expand its business in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa as well as develop its technologies.

Third: HyperPay

Saudi Arabia's HyperPay ranked third in terms of the volume of funding deals in June, successfully raising more than $36.7 M from its funding round led by Mastercard, with the participation of  Capital Partners funds and AB Ventures. The Saudi company is active in the fintech field. Through its portal, it provides services to process traders' payments, such as risk management solutions, monitoring system, instalment and billing systems, etc. According to the company's statement on the occasion of the recent funding round, it will use the funds of the last round to support its regional expansion plans in Egypt, Qatar and Oman, as well as to develop its technical team, investing in product search and development, and accelerating its adoption of easy and fast digital payment systems.

Fourth: NymCard

NymCard (UAE) successfully raised about $22.5 M in a funding round led by “Desert ID”, Reciprocal Ventures, “Shorouk Partners”, with the participation of “Shimera Capital”, DFDF, Knollwood, Endeavor Catalyst and “OTF Jasoor Ventures”. NymCard is active in fintech and banking, enabling fintech companies to deliver and operate prefabricated finance in their applications through modern application translation interfaces, enabling companies to focus on product offerings rather than dealing with complex payments. The new funding will help the company drive its operations towards expanding in the region and developing its technical capabilities.

Fifth: Cartlow

Finally, the UAE company Cartlow came fifth, with a total funding value of about $18 million in the company's first funding round, led by Al-Sulaiman Group. Cartlow works in logistics where it provides retailers and consumers with a reverse logistics service, including return management, warranty management, repurchase and replacement. The company will employ its first funding round funds to improve its technologies, contribute to enhancing of the circular economy and reducing waste in value chains, according to Cartlow's press release.

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Since 2021, Middle East and North Africa start-ups have witnessed a new leap in their growth. Although start-ups in the region have seen growth in the size and number of finance deals since 2013, as of the beginning of last year, there has been an unprecedented rise in start-up growth as the incubating business environment for start-ups in both the Gulf States and Egypt has evolved. In addition, new countries have entered the line of interest in start-ups, most notably Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The first half of 2022 was a new chapter in the great growth of start-ups. The total volume of deals acquired by start-ups in the region was more than $1.7 billion, with growth from the first half of last year of more than 83.7%, and up to 125% compared to total funding for start-ups in 2019-2020 in total! The number of start-up finance deals reached about 341 deals with a growth rate of about 38.6% compared to the first half of 2021 and nearly 94% compared to 2020 in total.

In the following lines, we will take a look at the situation of start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa for the first half of 2022, where funding is distributed geographically and sectorally, along with gender distribution, start-up funding phases, and others.

Distribution of Start-up Finance by Country

UAE start-ups have taken the lead in the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade in recent years, Saudi start-ups have advanced and become strong competitors of Emirati companies as a hub for attracting bold finance. In recent years, Saudi startups have advanced and become a strong competitor to Emirati companies as a center for attracting venture capital, thanks to economic reforms, developing the business environment for startups, and supporting and establishing investment funds to finance them. Egypt has also focused on supporting start-ups by improving the investment environment and supporting the establishment of investment funds, and providing facilities for foreign investors and entrepreneurs, which transformed the focus of corporate transaction finance over the past years.

While most start-up financing is concentrated in the UAE, both Saudi and Egyptian start-ups have a balanced share of the size of these investments. However, UAE start-ups continued to acquire the biggest share of total finance in the first half of last year, UAE companies received approximately 45% of total start-up finance. Start-ups in Saudi Arabia and Egypt received 28% and 9% respectively, but in the first line of 2022, changes emerged in the concentration of funding for start-ups in the region, The percentage of funding received by UAE start-ups was about 37.4% and althought it leads the list of the most attractive countries to fund the region's start-ups, its share shrank by about 7.5% compared to the first half of last year.

The decline was in favor of the expansion of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with Saudi start-ups' share of total financing reaching about 32.7%, a difference of less than 5% from the UAE. Egyptian start-ups accounted for about 18.5%, up 3.5%  compared to the same period last year. In the fourth place, Bahraini start-ups finished at 6.5%, which is more than 4.5% growth compared to the same period. It is also a significant rise in absolute numbers. According to the data of the first half of this year, Bahrain can be classified as a central country in attracting funding for start-ups in the region.

Sectoral Distribution of Start-up Finance

Since 2013, e-commerce start-ups have accounted for the largest share of total finance, but this has begun to change over the past two years. After e-commerce companies are extensively providing services, new start-ups entering the e-commerce market is difficult especially with the entry and expansion of large players in the Gulf and Egyptian market such as Amazon. At the same time, there was a need to improve and digitize the fintech market, this prompted the emerge of dozens of start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa region. This changed the trends of start-up financing to those companies that accounted for the largest share of funding in the past year by 18%, while the e-commerce share was only 12%. Besides the emerge of fintech companies, start-ups have also emerged in other areas, most notably health, education, food and agricultural technology.

In the first half of this year, fintech start-ups accounted for about 38.4% of total finance, with growth from the first half of last year reaching approximately 6.4%, In second place, agro-technology companies came in at about 21%, but about 50% of the total financing received by agro-technology companies belongs to the UAE company Pure Harvest. Therefore, it cannot be seen as a clear indicator of the growth of the agro-technology sector, as the number of agro-technology companies that received funding during the same period has not exceeded four. On the other hand, start-ups active in logistics, health and education technology and software show increasing and more sustained growth both in terms of the number of deals and the amount of funding received over the past two years.

Start-up Financing Stages

With the increase in the number of business accelerators in the region, particularly in the Arabian Gulf and Egypt, the number of start-ups receiving financing through fast-growing companies or so-called business incubators has risen. The proportion of start-up investment deals funded through business accelerators in the first half of this year reached about 27%, however, seed and pre-seed funding continued to dominate the start-up finance landscape. The proportion of companies that received an initial funding round reached about 22% and nearly 10% of start-ups received pre-establishment funding rounds. While the proportion of companies that obtained financing in the series (A) and (B) stages was limited to 4.8% and 3%, respectively, and the financing in the Series (C) stage was limited to only one company.

Funding Disaggregated by Gender

Data for the first half of 2022 show significant progress in terms of the high proportion of funding obtained by women-run start-ups rising to about 93% compared to the first half of last year. The percentage of funding received by these companies was about 2.7%.